Last Wednesday, Amazon reported that it would open the Kindle to borrowing digital books from libraries. At the current moment, the Kindle's biggest competitors in the e-reader industry (like Barnes & Noble's Nook and Sony's Reader) all offer online library subscriptions, which allow the user to "check out" books for free for a limited period of time. Like hard copies of library books, only one person can check out a copy of each digital book at once. Is this a good advancement? From a business perspective, it's not exactly a short-term money maker. However, this change has the potential to benefit both consumers and Amazon (as well as libraries). It is clear that in the last several years, we have seen the growth of a huge trend with the rise of e-readers and digital books. It seems natural then, that by encouraging this new trend, we can also encourage a younger generation of readers to engage in literature on a medium that is familiar to them. Hand held digital gaming devices, music players and phones have been available for ages, so it seems fitting that a small tablet that is really several hundred books at once would be added to this digital arsenal. Perhaps we can foresee a day in the near future when college students stop buying textbooks, and instead opt for digital copies in order to consolidate all of their academic necessities into one small space.
Overview
History
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Opinion
Last Wednesday, Amazon reported that it would open the Kindle to borrowing digital books from libraries. At the current moment, the Kindle's biggest competitors in the e-reader industry (like Barnes & Noble's Nook and Sony's Reader) all offer online library subscriptions, which allow the user to "check out" books for free for a limited period of time. Like hard copies of library books, only one person can check out a copy of each digital book at once. Is this a good advancement? From a business perspective, it's not exactly a short-term money maker. However, this change has the potential to benefit both consumers and Amazon (as well as libraries). It is clear that in the last several years, we have seen the growth of a huge trend with the rise of e-readers and digital books. It seems natural then, that by encouraging this new trend, we can also encourage a younger generation of readers to engage in literature on a medium that is familiar to them. Hand held digital gaming devices, music players and phones have been available for ages, so it seems fitting that a small tablet that is really several hundred books at once would be added to this digital arsenal. Perhaps we can foresee a day in the near future when college students stop buying textbooks, and instead opt for digital copies in order to consolidate all of their academic necessities into one small space.
Future Trends?
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